Reading: Mark 9:30-37

In our passage from Sunday, as Jesus and his disciples walk on the road, he teaches them a second time about his coming suffering and death. It is clear once again, that the disciples are unable to comprehend what Jesus is saying to them. It is outside their conceptual framework and outside of their hopes and expectations.

Their inability to comprehend reveals itself when, at the end of the journey, Jesus asks them what they were arguing about on the road. Like naughty school children who have been found out, they all become silent, unwilling to admit the nature of their conversation. They probably realise at this point how childish they had been while walking together on the road. We read that they kept quiet because on the way, they had argued about who was the greatest. Which one of them was the most important disciple of Jesus?

Jesus responds by teaching them with the following words:

"If you want to be first, you must be the very last, and the servant of all. In other words, if you want to be greatest, you must allow yourself to be the least."

What might Jesus be trying to teach them and us?

If we no longer have any need to be great in the eyes of others, if it no longer matters to us whether we are the greatest or the least, then we are truly free. Free from the constant anxiety of wondering how we are being perceived. Free to discover a peace that is also a fountain of joy. If we are continually bound up with the thought of being seen to be great in the eyes of other people, then we live a very precarious existence. Our fragile egos are always in danger.

When we are no longer investing all our energy into wanting to be seen great in other people's eyes, we are free, and then we have energy to give ourselves to other things. Our lives and our energy can be spent in benefit, not just to ourselves, but to others as well. We can begin to make a real contribution to society. I believe this is what Jesus is suggesting when he speaks of becoming the servant of all.

When we have given up concern about wanting to be seen to be great, our lives can become a source of benefit to others.

The Tao Te Ching is a little book of ancient Chinese wisdom. The title simply means “The Way and its Power”. Reading through its pages, it often seems like the Way and the Wisdom of Jesus are reflected in its pages. Chapter 8 seems particularly pertinent to our passage from Mark today. It examines the wisdom we can learn from water:

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content to occupy the low places that people disdain.

A person of virtue is like water which adapts itself to the perfect place.
Let your mind be like the deep water that is calm and peaceful.
Let your heart be kind like water that benefits all.
Let your words be honest like the water which reflects everything as it is.
Let your governing be without force or control like the softness of water that penetrates hard rocks.
Let yourself be adaptable and let your timing be like the smooth free flow of water.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.*


Jesus said to them: “If you want to be first, you must be the very last, and the servant of all”. If you want to be greatest, you must allow yourself to be the least of all, to nourish others by being content to occupy the low places that people disdain."

*This quote from the Tao Te Ching represents an adaptation from two translations, one from Stephen Mitchell and the other from an unknown author.

On the 11th Feb 2017 the newspaper publication The Mirror ran the following headline:

Britain's youngest Euromillions winner wants to sue Lotto for ruining her life with big win. Jane Park, who was only 17 when she scooped £1million with her first-ever ticket, is considering legal action against lottery bosses for negligence in allowing someone so young to buy a ticket.

Britain's youngest EuroMillions winner says her ­stupendous windfall has ­ruined her life. “I thought it would make it ten times better but it’s made it ten times worse. I wish I had no money most days. I say to myself, ‘My life would be so much easier if I hadn’t won.’ People look at me and think, ‘I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money.’ But they don’t realise the extent of my stress. I have material things but apart from that my life is empty. What is my purpose in life?”

In our passage today, Jesus says: “What good is it to gain the whole world, yet forfeit, or lose touch with your soul”

The setting of this passage is really significant. It takes place outside the city of Caesarea. In other words, it takes place outside a city built in honour of Caesar.

Caesar was metaphorically speaking one who had gained the whole world. He was ruler of the whole of the civilised world as they knew it. He was the richest and most powerful man of the day.

In this passage, we are seeing a contrast between Caesar, the ruler of the world, and Jesus, God's anointed one, who comes to usher in God's Kingdom.

What the writer of Mark's Gospel is suggesting is that the way of Christ is very different from the way of Caesar. The way of Caesar is the way of trying to amass all the wealth and power that the world can give. The way Christ, God's anointed, is the way of being willing to give one's life away for the sake of God and for the sake of others.

In the Old Testament, before crossing over into the promised land, Joshua poses a question to the people of Israel. "Choose this day who you will serve".

In our passage from the gospel of Mark, we are faced with a similar choice. Will we choose the way of trying to gain the whole world, and in so doing lose touch with the essence of who we are, lose touch with a deep sense of meaning and purpose. Or will we be willing to walk the way of Christ, the way of being willing to give ourselves away in acts of loving service to God and others and in doing so, to gain something that money can't buy.

How easily we get trapped. Returning to the opening story, despite being desperately unhappy, living a meaningless existence and despite regretting that she had ever won the lottery, when asked if she would be willing to give the money away, Jane Park said “no!”

Jesus says we can gain the whole world and forfeit, or lose touch with our soul… lose touch with a deep sense of meaning and purpose:

What are the moments in your life where you have felt most deeply in touch with your own soul; with a deep sense of inner connectedness with something much bigger than you.

What are the experiences where you have felt most connected to your own true meaning and purpose?

What is one small thing you could do this week to help you connect more deeply with your inner being and a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in your life?

On Sunday Rev. Brian reflected on Mark 1:40-45. He told the following story:

"In about 1996 I took a group of teenagers on what was called a pilgrimage of pain and hope. Over a three day period we went to places where people were bringing hope into situations of pain and brokenness.

One of the places we went to was a children's home run by the Methodist Church. The matron explained to us the kind of work they do and the kind of children they seek to help.

One story was particularly moving. She told how a little baby had been brought to the home, having been found abandoned by her mother. By the time the little girl was brought to the children's home, she was in a very poor state. Immediately a doctor was called to attend to the baby. He did whatever he could, but said that the little child was not in a good state at all and probably wouldn't make the night. It looked as if her little spark of life was ebbing away.

Wanting to give the little girl whatever love they could show to her in her last remaining hours a decision was made that staff would take it in turns to hold the little one through the long hours of the night that lay ahead. Throughout the night, the baby was held. Held and loved.

In the morning when the doctor arrived again to look at the baby, he was amazed not only that she was alive, but also at the turn-around in the baby's condition. All her vital signs were looking significantly better than the night before. He could only conclude that the love and the warmth she had received from staff during the night had activated within the little girl a will to live that seemed to have been lost in the hours before when she lay alone and abandoned by her mother. The doctor could only explain the turn-around in her condition through to the power of love and the power of human touch."

As we read through the Gospel stories, we get a sense of how important and how healing touch was in the ministry of Jesus. In the passage last week, with a touch of his hand, Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law. In our passage on Sunday, Jesus reaches out and touches a leper. This was a profound moment because it is unlikely that this leper had received human touch from the first time it became apparent that he had a skin disease.

As Jesus reaches out to touch the man with leprosy, we see two healings happening simultaneously. Firstly we see the outward healing as the man is healed physically. The text reads: “In that moment, the leprosy left him, and he was healed”.

Secondly, in reaching out to touch a person who possibly hadn't been touched in years, Jesus brings healing to him in his heart and spirit too.

Mother Teresa was once quoted as saying:

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness are willing hands and hearts ready to reach out in love.”

May God's love so touch and heal us that we may have willing hands and hearts ready to reach out to those who need our love.

On Sunday 4th Feb we reflected on Mark 1:29-39. In the passage we find Jesus leaving the synagogue and going into the home of Peter where, with a touch of his hand he heals Peter's mother-in-law who has a fever. As evening comes we read that the whole town coming to Jesus bringing the sick and demon possessed to Jesus for him to heal.

Pheme Perkins a US theologian writes “How can we read these stories about Jesus, the exorcist and healer, without feeling cheated?”

It is entirely understandable that there would be many who would say: If Jesus could heal people in the Bible stories, then why when I prayed for my loved one, he or she was not also miraculously healed.
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For those who have experienced tragedy like this, making sense of God and prayer in the process of healing can be extremely difficult.

Rev. Moodie gave examples in his ministry when praying for people in extremely difficult situations left him feeling utterly inadequate and helpless.

For some people their faith can be really shaken and may come to the point of giving up the whole faith enterprise. For others they may have come to the point of considering themselves agnostic. They just don't know anymore.

At the end of Matthew's Gospel we have a curious verse. It is a resurrection story. The disciples meet the risen Jesus on a mountain top in Galilee and they fall down and worship him. Then we read these strange words... “but some of them doubted”. If some of the disciples could doubt, Rev Moodie expressed the hope that in this community of faith, people would feel that it is okay to have genuine questions and doubts.

Rev. Moodie concluded with the following words:

"Despite the things which I struggle to understand, and despite living in a world of pain and sorrow, I continue to be a person of faith. Not a faith that assures me that nothing will ever go wrong in life, but a faith that continues to whisper gently to me that even in a world of tears there is a Sacred Wisdom that holds us and which is woven through life, and that in being part of a faith community that meets to worship on a regular basis, it helps me to feel more deeply connected to that mystery of life and have a sense that there is a deep meaning to life that connects us and holds us all together… and that meaning and mystery I would call God.

I continue to pray, despite many of the questions I have. I continue to keep a list of people in this congregation in my prayers. I have to be honest that I am not always sure what the outcome will be, but I do rest in the belief that maybe even in some small way, my prayers might make a small difference and might be a means of sharing God's love with other people."

On Sunday 4th February 2018 we had the privilege of welcoming Sara Finney, daughter of Dean and Melanie, into the family of Christ as we celebrated her baptism.

It was Rev. Moodie's first baptism at the Dromore Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.